Road marking devices



Nov. 3, 1964 G. l.. EIGENMANN ROAD MARKING DEVICES 2 Sheets-Shaml 1 Filed Sept. 1l, 1961 AVA MIA?

Nov. 3, 1964 G. L. ElGx-:NMANN ROAD MARKING DEVICES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed sept. 11, 1961 United States Patent O 3,155,564 RAD MARKING DER/ICES Gino Luigi Eigenmann, ll Via Spinola, Milan, Italy Filed Sept. ll, 196i, Ser. No. 137,458 lairns priority, application Switzerland, Sept. l0, i969, 10,272/60 and 10,273/60 2 Ciaims. (Cl. l56--575) The present invention relates to the art of applying plastic made marking stripes and elements to surfaces subject to mark-obliterating traffic, and more particularly to the marking of traffic lines and other directional data upon the surface of streets or other highways.

Marks of this nature, such as road-center and crosswalks lines, and other trailic aids such as words of warning or stop signals, were customarily painted upon the street or highway pavements with ordinary paint. Since the paint does not dry immediately, it has been necessary heretofore to perform the marking work by roping off the freshly painted areas to prohibit tratic thereover until the paint dries. Such painted marks are not satisfyingly durable and under severe traliic conditions the painted marks are rapidly obliterated by the tires of passing vehicles.

According to a more advanced technique, such marks are being embodied by plastic made sheet material adhesively applied to the road surface, and several road marking apparatuses designed to lay and adhesively apply to the road surface such sheet materials have been heretofore proposed. In my prior patent application Serial No. 847,556, filed on October 20, 1959 (now PatentrNo. 3,007,838), a particularly effective and useful road-marking vehicle has been described. Such vehicle is adapted to progressively lay and adhesively apply on road and highway surfaces while travelling in the direction delined by the applied marking, either in continuous or uninterrupted form, or in interrupted manner, i.e., by successively applying on the road surface spaced lengths of the sheet material.

In actual service of such and other road-marking apparatus several serious problems and diiiculties have been however encountered. In general, a very thorough and intimate connection of the sheet material to the road surface is very ditiicult to attain. For proper operation of the known apparatus pretty rigid sheet materials have been proved necessary, and such substantially rigid materials are not best adapted to intimate application and plastic adaptation to the irregular and coarse road surfaces, and to resist to the most severe traic mark obliterating effects.

Greatly better results in view of a really eifective and durable road marking have been however attained by making use, as road marking sheet material, of compounds including essentially plastic polymers, essentially elastic or rubbery polymers or substances, plasticizers, llers and pigments, and by making use of adhesive agents of compatible and essentially alike character. In my co-pending patent application, filed in even date herewith, a number of examples of such compounds and adhesives is given, and the improved devices and equipments of this invention are to be considered as prevailingly designed for road marking by utilizing materials and means of the above character.

In addition, it has been found that an essential and critical condition for having the sheet material rapidly and permanently bonded to the road surface consists in having the adhesive in a condition of very high viscosity on at least one of the two surfaces (of the sheet material and of the road, respectively) where such surfaces are brought in contacting relationship. The carrying of the material, having one of its faces covered with a lm of CII 3,155,564 Patented Nov. 3, 1954 Mice adhesive in the position of contact, and the providing such film in the above condition on said face and/or on the road surface where to be covered by the sheet material, involve certain serious problems.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide new and improved road marking devices and equipments whereby said problems may be solved by properly applying the adhesive while the above condition may be fully satisfied and by properly carrying the said sheet material in contact with the road surface so that by pressing for a very brief time such material on said surface a thorough, intimate and permanent bonding of the material on the road may be satisfyingly obtained.

More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide new and advantageous devices for providing, on at least one of the said road and respectively sheet material surfaces, an adhesive agent of the type considered so that the above advantageous and critical condition may be satisfied.

A further object of this invention is to provide, according to a form of embodiment of the invention, means for applying a solution of the adhesive agent on a face of the sheet material in a condition of relatively low viscosity and at a first position spaced from the position at which the said material is caused to contact the road surface, and means for eliminating the greater part of the solvents from the said solution while the sheet material is carried from said first position to the said position of contact, whereby the said adhesive will possess the desired high viscosity when said position of contact is reached.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for applying and evenly distributing on at least one of the said surfaces of the road and/ or of the sheet material an adhesive agent already in condition of relatively high or of high viscosity.

An ancillary object of this invention is to provide adhesivating devices wherein means are provided for securing the high viscosity level of the adhesive (which shows a marked tendency to rapidly solidify) for an extended time, whereby the extensive and uninterrupted operation of the road marking apparatus will be secured.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention are in part obvious and in part will be made apparent as this description proceeds, and the features which are believed to be new and characteristic of the invention are in particular set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and to its mode of operation will be best understood from the following detailed description of preferred forms of ernbodiment thereof, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, forming an essential component of this disclosure, and wherein:

FIGURE l diagrammatically and perspectively illustrates a typical example of highway road-marking, which is desirably to be laid and adhesively applied as rapidly as possible, with little or no interruption of traffic, without preliminary treatment of the road surface and even under unfavourable weather conditions, and however without prejudice of the thorough, intimate and permanent binding of the sheet material to said surface;

FIGURE 2 illustrates in a somewhat simplified way an apparatus adapted for road-marking in the above conditions;

FIGURE 3 is a diagram of the path and of the treatment of the sheet material within the apparatus of FIG. 2;

FIGURE 4 diagrammatically and perspectively illustrates another typical example of street road-marking, the application of which involves problems and makes desirably conditions different to those of the case of FIG. l, in particular which desirably requires smaller and more handy machines than the apparatus of FIG. 2;

FIGURES 5 and 6 illustrate, correspondingly to FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively, a small and handy apparatus adapted for road-marking operations of the type of FIG. 4;

FIGURE 7 diagrammatically illustrates a modified form of embodiment of the adhesivating device of the apparatus of FIG. 2, adapted for forming on a face of the sheet material a film of adhesive of relatively high viscosity;

FIGURE 8 diagrammatically shows an adhesivating device particularly designed as a component of a small apparatus of the type shown in FIG. 5;

FIGURE 9 illustrates a modification of the device of FIG. 7, capable to apply a film of adhesive of higher viscosity;

FIGURE 10 illustrates a device for adhesivation of the road surface prior to application of the sheet material thereon;

FIGURES l1, 12, 13 and 14 illustrate means designed to cause the sheet material to be carried under the action of adhesivating devices; and

FIGURE 15 illustrates a device for correctly distributing the adhesive on a face of the sheet material in strip form.

Referring first to FIGS. 1 to 6: for better understanding of the objects and of the problems solved by the invention, the following consideration may be taken in mind. For rapidly, safely and permanently applying on the road surface 10 of an highway, such highway 11 of FIG. l, or of a town street, such illustrated in FIG. 4, the above indicated critical conditions may be satisfied by making use of various means. While for applying extensive uninterrupted road-center lines, such at 12 in FIG. 1, or spaced lengths 13, a rapidly travelling machine is desirable, for marking a briefer and localized trafiic aid, such as the cross-walk marking 14 of FIG. 4, a smaller machine which may be easily carried from one to other of differing locations is preferred, even if such smaller inachine could work less completely than the former.

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate a machine adapted to travel on the road surface 10 in the direction in which the uninterrupted or interrupted line 12 or 13, respectively (FIG. l) is to be laid. Such machine includes a rotary brush means for cleaning'and scrubbing the road surface, a jet 21 of cold or hot air for completing the cleaning, down-turned burners 22 for fully drying the road surface and, preferably, a spray-nozzle 23 for applying a very thin film of adhesive to the said surface, preparatory of the laying and application at 24 of the sheet material.

Preferably, the said adhesive sprayed by nozzle 23 is of pretty low viscosity, so that it fully penetrates any minor cavity and ,irregularity of the surface 10. The said low viscosity will be increased before the contact with sheet material at 24, for the partial elimination of the solvents, particularly under the action of heating of said surface by said burners 22.

The sheet material is carried by the apparatus in form of an uninterrupted strip wound on a bobbin 25, together with a separating material 45, such paper or thin sheet plastic not compatible with the marking material, to prevent the gluing between adjacent coils of the bobbin. Such separating material 45 will be unwound together with the marking material, and wound about another bobbin such as 46. The sheet marking material already applied on the road surface 10, upon the passage of the applying device of the apparatus, is indicated at 26.

The said sheet material may be further carried in the machine and progressively laid on the road surface in formof two or more parallel strips, when desired, for marking road-center twin lines, for example, by duplicating the devices of which the apparatus is provided.

The strip of sheet material, fed at 27 within the apparatus, prior to enter in a device 28 for applying to a face thereof a film of adhesive, is heated by the heat carried by a conveying belt 29 passing about heated rollers 35.

i Such heating system is particularly advantageous because the amount of heat transferred into the sheet material at 27 may be exactly limited within the value of heat adsorption of said belt 29, of given cross-sectional area and thermical mass.

Upon adhesivation at 31, the sheet material travels along a path including a portion 32 in a device generally indicated at 33, wherein by means of heat or of gaseous streams, or other means, the prevailing portion of solvents of the adhesive will be eliminate/:1, that the adhesive on the sheet material at 24 will possess the said critical very high viscosity. As a consequence thereof, a permanent binding of the material on the road surface, at 26, may be attained by pressing such material on such surface while the apparatus travels for a length 35 of the road.

For providing the laying of sheet material is the form of spaced strip lengths, such as at 13 in FIG. 1, the above described apparatus of FIG. 2 includes a strip cutting and strip lengths spacing and advancing assembly as generally indicated at 34. A form of embodiment of such strip cutting and advancing assembly has been described in detail in the said my prior application filed October 20, 1959, and therefore it will be not further explained. The material from the magazine bobbin 25 is fed into the said assembly 34 through a device 36 wherein the path of such material is caused to be alternatively elongated and shortened, to compensate intermittent motion of the components of assembly 34, wherein the strip lengths, progressively cut from the uninterrupted strip material from bobbin 25, are lengthwise spaced to be laid on the road surface 10 in the spaced condition illustrated at 13 in FIG. l.

For providing road markings of the type indicated at 14 in FIG. 4 the simpler machine of FIGS. 5 and 6 is provided with a bobbin 40 acting as a magazine for the sheet material in uninterrupted form. Such material is progressively fed in the position 41 of contact with the road surface 10 by an applying and pressing device generally indicated at 42, while a powerful air blower 43 projects a stream of preferably hot air at 44 on the road surface for preparing same to adhesively bind itself with the laid sheet material.

In the form of embodiment of FIG. 2, the apparatus is shown as provided with a conventionally constructed and operating adhesivating device at 28. Such device generally consists of a first roller partially immersed into a bath of solution of the adhesive and continuously carrying a film of adhesive on an adhesivating roller rollingly contacting both the said first roller and the lower face of the sheet material.

Such conventional adhesivating device is adapted to apply adhesives of relatively low viscosity only and, therefore, upon adhesivation at 31, the film of the applied adhesive must be treated, prior to application of the sheet material at 24 to the road surface 10, for greatly increasing its viscosity.

To apply a film of adhesive already possessing a greater viscosity would be obviously more desirable. Such application may be performed by making use of an adhesivating device as shown in FIG. 7, wherein the sheet material fed at 27 towards the adhesivating means is caused to revolve, about a roller 47, within a casing 48 wherein an atmosphere 49 saturated with solvent is produced and maintained by a solvent spraying nozzle 50, for example. The adhesive possessing a relatively high viscosity is applied by means of an adhesivating roller 51 and the film of applied adhesive is evenly formed on the face of the sheet material by rotary brushes 52 within the casing 48.

The said solvent saturated atmosphere 49 within casing 43 prevents the drying on the already highly viscous adhesive on the said adhesivating roller 51 and on the brushes 52 and it has been surprisingly found that the operation of said means in such atmosphere greatly improves the formation and the thorough distribution of the film of adhesive on the material exhausted at 32 from the adhesivating device.

In smaller apparatus, such as the one shown in FIG. 5, the requirement of very extensive and uninterrupted operation of the road marking means is not to be strictly considered, because such apparatuses are mainly designed to produce pretty small traflic aids, such as cross-walk signs and warnings, stop lines and the like. An adhesivating device of the type shown in FIG. 8 may be therefore advantageously made use of in connection with said latter apparatuses. Said device includes an adhesive magazine in form of a vertical shaped tank 57 wherein an amount of adhesive 54 of pretty high viscosity may be contained. Such tank 57 has a lower shaped opening wherein the sheet material revolving about an applying roller means, diagrammatically indicated at 55, passes in contact with the adhesive 54 upon passage of a cleaning blade 56. An air blower located below the position of adhesivation may be advantageously used either for causing the material to revolve about and under the roller 55 until contact at 41 with the road surface 10.

An improved adhesivating device adapted for laying on the material 58 a film of adhesive of high viscosity is shown in FIG. 9. Said devices include an adhesivating roller 59 having a smaller portion contacting with said material 5S outside a casing 6l, and a prevailing portion rotating inside said casing 6l wherein an atmosphere 62 saturated of solvents is formed and maintained. Said roller 59 is rotatably supported in casing 61 in adjacent relationship with a counter-roller 60, and the adhesive 63 is contained in a tank 64 having a lower opening'in flush with the bit formed by said rollers 59 and 60 for forming on said roller 59 a film of adhesive, laminated by counter-roller 60. Cleaning blades 65 operate on the surfaces of said rollers 59 and 60.

For direct adhesivation of the road surface with an adhesive of high or relatively high viscosity a device of the type shown in FIG. 10 is advantageously made use of. Said device includes a roller 66 passing in flush with the lower opening of a tank wherein the adhesive 67 is contained for having a film of adhesive continuously re-formed thereon. A rotary brush 68 contacts both said roller 66 and the road surface 10 for continuously transferring the adhesive from the roller to the said surface, where the resilient brush bristles 69 of said brush 68 distribute the adhesive in the irregularities of the road surface.

According to an important feature of the invention, it has been found that a very good formation of a thorough and uniform film of adhesive on the surface to be adhesivated may be produced by means of rotary adhesivating means, such as rollers 51 of FIG. 7, roller 59 of FIG. 9 and brush 68 of FIG. 10, caused to rotate at a rotational speed such that their outer surfaces or their bristles possess a relatively high linear speed in respect with the adjacent surface to be adhesivated. Such speed surprisingly ensures an adhesive lamination on said surface and the most desirable formation of the film.

A further advantageous improvement in applying and evenly laminating an uniform iilm of adhesive of high or of relatively high viscosity may be attained, according to the invention, by associating toroller means suitably directed gaseous blasts impacting on the adhesivated surface, said blasts being emitted by conventionally constructed nozzles fed with pressurized air or other gaseous medium. Said blast may be further directed for carrying the adhesive from the surface of rollers or from stationary surfaces to the surface to be adhesivated, as illustrated in FIG. 14.

Some problems are further involved in correctly feeding the plastic sheet material under the action of the adhesivating means, more particularly when the said material is cut into a plurality of lengths to be fed in spaced condition Within the adhesivating devices, because the leading end portions of said lengths are subject to curl 6 and to deviate from the desired path of feeding. Although the embodiment of FIG. 14 solves these problems, FIGS. l1-l3 and l5 present further solutions.

According to FIGS. ll and l2, a sheet material of the character considered is assumed to be intermittently fed between and adhesivating roller 7@ (which may have a film of adhesive continuously or intermittently re-formed thereon, by means of any of the above described implements or other conventional means) and a counter-roller 74. In FIG. ll a plurality of idler or of driven rollers '75 are shown for guidingly causing the material 73 to revolve about roller 74 until contact with roller 70. In FIGS. l2 and 13 (in FIG. 13 the device is shown in elevation in the plane indicated at ISL-I3 in FIG. l2) a plurality of thin and interlocated rotating idler or driven disks 76 is shown for guidingly fed the material into the bit of roller means '70 and 74.

Idler or driven roller means may be provided for laminating the applied adhesive into a favourably distributed film too. According to FIG. l5, symmetrically arranged rollers 80, obliquely diverging in respect of direction A of feeding of the adhesivated strip material, laminate the film S2, of the adhesive thereon for prevailingly distributing such adhesive on the `lateral portions 83 of the face of strip, in respect with the central portion 82a therefor. Such distribution improves the binding of the lateral edge portions of the sheet material on the road surface.

While the invention has been described and shown in a defined number of forms of embodiment thereof, it is obvious that the invention itself is not limited to the very details shown, and that several further structural modifications and variations might be made thereto, according to the art.

It is moreover believed to be evident that the present invention includes a plurality of advantageous features, and it will be understood that each of the new features described and any combination thereof may find useful application in other constructions of road marking apparatuses, device, appliances and means, differing from the ones described.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of this invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications Without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are comprehended within the spirit, meaning equivalence of the invention, as defined in and by the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention and the mode of carrying out thereof, what is claimed as new and desired to have protected by Letters Patent is:

l. In a road marking apparatus for adhesively applying strip sections of strip material in longitudinally spaced relationship from a vehicle travelling at a given speed along a road surface onto said road surface, in combination,

supply means for supplying said material;

feeding means for feeding said material from said supply means to a position of application of said material to said road surface; adhesive means for applying a high viscosity adhesive to said road surface, said adhesive means comprising a supply roller, a source of high viscosity adhesive opening onto the surface of said supply roller and rotary brush means in operative contact with the surface of said supply roller and with said road surface ahead of said position of application for brushing the high viscosity adhesive applied to said supply roller on said road surface to evenly distribute said adhesive material on said road surface; and

pressing means for yieldably pressing said material on said road surface at said position of application for a time sufficient to enable substantial setting of said high viscosity adhesive.

2. In a road marking apparatus for adhesively applying strip sections of strip material in longitudinally spaced relationship from a vehicle travelling at a given speed along a road surface onto said road surface, in combination,

supply means for supplying said material;

feeding means for feeding said material from said supply means to a position of application of said material to said road surface;

adhesive means for applying a film of high viscosity adhesive to a selected surface of said strip material at a location of said apparatus intermediate said supply means and said position of application, said adhesive means comprising a feeding roller having said strip material passing around a portion of the surface thereof and a supply roller in operative contact with the selected surface of said strip material on said portion of the surface of said feeding roller, said supply roller being adapted to apply a high visfb cosity adhesive to said selected surface of said strip material;

Aguiding means for guiding the leading edge of said strip material to the surface of said feeding roller between said feeding roller and said supply roller comprising means for directing a gaseous medium onto said strip material at the point of contact of said feeding roller and said supply roller; and

pressing means for yieldably pressing said material on said road surface at said position of application for a time sutlicient to enable substantial setting of said high viscosity adhesive.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 920,272 Cook May 4, 1909 2,187,879 Johnson Jan. 23, 1940 2,311,013 Whitehead Feb. 16, 1943 

1. IN A ROAD MARKING APPARATUS FOR ADHESIVELY APPLYING STRIP SECTIONS OF STRIP MATERIAL IN LONGITUDINALLY SPACED RELATIONSHIP FROM A VEHICLE TRAVELLING AT A GIVEN SPEED ALONG A ROAD SURFACED ONTO SAID ROAD SURFACE, IN COMBINATION, SUPPLY MEANS FOR SUPPLYING SAID MATERIAL; FEEDING MEANS FOR FEEDING SAID MATERIAL FROM SAID SUPPLY MEANS TO A POSITION OF APPLICATION OF SAID MATERIAL TO SAID ROAD SURFACE; ADHESIVE MEANS FOR APPLYING A HIGH VISCOSITY ADHESIVE TO SAID ROAD SURFACE, SAID ADHESIVE MEANS COMPRISING A SUPPLY ROLLER, A SOURCE OF HIGH VISCOSITY ADHESIVE OPENING ONTO THE SURFACE OF SAID SUPPLY ROLLER AND ROTARY BRUSH MEANS IN OPERATIVE CONTACT WITH THE SURFACE OF SAID SUPPLY ROLLER AND WITH SAID ROAD SURFACE AHEAD OF SAID POSITION OF APPLICATION FOR BRUSHING THE HIGH VISCOSITY ADHESIVE APPLIED TO SAID SUPPLY ROLLER ON SAID ROAD SURFACE TO EVENLY DISTRIBUTE SAID ADHESIVE MATERIAL ON SAID ROAD SURFACE; AND PRESSING MEANS FOR YIELDABLY PRESSING SAID MATERIAL ON SAID ROAD SURFACE AT SAID POSITION OF APPLICATIONS FOR A TIME SUFFICIENT TO ENABLE SUBSTANTIAL SETTING OF SAID HIGH VISCOSITY ADHESIVE. 